How to use the apache commons java library on Ubuntu?

Issue

I am a Java beginner and trying to figure out how to use the apache commons lib.

Here is a source file Randstr.java:

import org.apache.commons.lang3.RandomStringUtils;

class Randstr {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String s = RandomStringUtils.random(12);
        System.out.println(s);
    }
}

I have the commons-lang3-3.1.jar file in /usr/share/java/ and have created a symlink in the current dir. Then I compiled it like this: javac -cp commons-lang3-3.1.jar Randstr.java, the complilation was fine, but when I execute java Randstr, I got the following error:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/commons/lang3/RandomStringUtils
        at Randstr.main(Randstr.java:5)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.commons.lang3.RandomStringUtils
        at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:366)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
        at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
        ... 1 more

And if I don't specify the jar file in the classpath, it will not even compile:

javac -cp . Randstr.java

# Randstr.java:1: error: package org.apache.commons.lang3 does not exist
# import org.apache.commons.lang3.RandomStringUtils;
#                                ^
# Randstr.java:5: error: cannot find symbol
#         String s = RandomStringUtils.random(12);
#                    ^
#   symbol:   variable RandomStringUtils
#   location: class Randstr
# 2 errors

javac -cp /usr/share/java/  Randstr.java

# Randstr.java:1: error: package org.apache.commons.lang3 does not exist
# import org.apache.commons.lang3.RandomStringUtils;
#                                ^
# Randstr.java:5: error: cannot find symbol
#         String s = RandomStringUtils.random(12);
#                    ^
#   symbol:   variable RandomStringUtils
#   location: class Randstr
# 2 errors

From reading other questions on stackoverflow, I see this can be solved by using an IDE, but I prefer a simple editor at the moment.

Solution

If you can compile it with

javac -cp commons-lang3-3.1.jar Randstr.java

then you can run it with

java -cp commons-lang3-3.1.jar:. Randstr

The JAR file has to be in the classpath.

Answered By - vanje